


Royan Island

by For the Record (SakoAkarui)



Series: Animorphs - Tom AU [7]
Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 06:32:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16258634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakoAkarui/pseuds/For%20the%20Record





	1. In Which We Are Stooges

I’m about to tell you a story, but I hope you aren’t looking for a light jaunt. And I mean on top of everything else we’ve dumped on you, as this one hits pretty close to home. I’ve chosen to talk to you about my mom.

Sounds so innocuous, huh? Maybe you think I’ll rant away at the list of things she asks me to do, like clean my room, or finish my homework, or put my dishes in the sink. Or maybe you think this is about the Yeerks, how she got in the way and she got infested, like Jake. Well, no, not exactly that. My mom was lost long before I tried to Vine my way to viral status with Elfangor’s close encounter.

I went to my mom’s funeral on November 8th, and I was nine years old at the time. Jake came, too. It meant a lot to have him there with me for that. It would’ve meant a lot to have him around for everything I’m about to describe. But you know, Tom works out, too.

Our mission was a bit of an odd one, if ever that can be said. Partly it was odd because, from the outset, we knew we weren’t facing off with Visser Three, but Visser _One_. When I heard that news, I was just like, isn’t the guy we have problems enough to deal with? There’s a whole war out there for this other Visser to deal with, what are they coming up to our turf for? But anyway, the visser was coming to Earth to start this new project. We, Earth, were meant to be a backwaters testing ground for something new. One of the other planets this war is being fought on is almost entirely water, and the Yeerks didn’t have a good way to deal with that situation. Which makes sense. I think it’d be interesting to design a game looking at that strategic problem, but you can’t exactly do Warhammer in three dimensions easily.

But Marco, I hear you say. So cryptic! Where are my beautiful details? We live for your details, scrounge through the mud for a glimpse of their glittery nuance. Well, I’ll only tell you what we knew from the start. We knew there was this big project in a facility out by a place called Royan Island. We knew it was really big, or Number One wouldn’t have gotten it, and we knew just about nothing else. We didn’t even know about the water planet at the time. But we decided if Visser One was on Earth, then we needed to at least consider checking it out. So we had a meeting to decide what to do.

“What’s the question?” Rachel asked. “Big Yeerk project, we go and take a look. Isn’t that what we always do?”

<Water is not exactly our strength,> Tobias said. Tobias could morph again by the time this mission went down, but a bird’s still a bird I guess.

<You successfully found and rescued me,> Ax chimed in. I remember thinking, at the time, how much more he’d been participating in meetings, even coming to the barn without making a fuss, but I think Tom had spoken to him on it. Tom has a way of Getting To You. <I believe we would be more than capable of infiltrating a water facility.>

“Don’t move unless you see an advantage,” Tom said. He looked thoughtful as he leaned against a hay bale. “What is our advantage?”

“Our advantage is not falling into whatever Visser One is cooking up,” I said. “This is strictly about intelligence. If we don’t know what they’re doing, we’ll never win.” Tom looked up at me, then at each of the others’ faces in turn while we talked.

“Royan Island is about twenty miles off the coast,” Cassie said. “It’ll be a long swim.”

“Ax is right,” Rachel said. “We did more getting him out of the ocean.”

“We talked to whales,” I deadpanned. And was ignored.

“Look, we fly, we swim, whatever,” Rachel continued, “but I say we do it. Let’s go in now before they see us coming.”

<It is our best lead on a critical Yeerk project to date,> Ax said.

“Right, right, we need to know,” Tom said, defeated. “So we have our mission. If it’s too far to swim then we’ll have to fly part of the way out. Then we’ll all have to use the dolphin morphs.”

“Tobias doesn’t have one, though,” Cassie said. Which was true. We’d all morphed dolphins while he was stuck as a bird.

<Oh. Well, no, I don’t have a… dolphin morph… Guess you’ll need me in the sky.>

“Don’t be stupid; we’ll just swing by the Gardens and you can acquire the morph.”

“A bird,” I said, “petting a dolphin?” Tom rubbed aggressively at his temples.

“Cassie, help figure out a way for Tobias to get a dolphin morph. The rest of us can fly out as seagulls, right? Less conspicuous.” Turns out Ax didn’t have that morph, but there was a conveniently injured seagull in the barn. That just left us with a trip to the Gardens. With no time like the present, we flew directly to the Gardens.

The Gardens, as may or may not have been described since I’m not reading anyone else’s posts, is half-zoo half-theme park. I’ve always loved the roller coaster side of the Gardens, but we mostly use the zoo these days. Since Cassie’s mother works there, it’s very convenient. They even have a dolphin exhibit with four dolphins — Lily, Marshal, Ted and Barney.

Now, I don’t think you want the play by play —

What’s that? You do? Oh, alright then.

So we flew by the Gardens before our mission, which was a bit silly since we’d need time enough to get out to Royan Island, but we’re not the smartest people I suppose. Imagine a flock of seagulls and one very irritable red-tailed hawk flying in formation to the theme park/zoo extravaganza on a bright Saturday morning. The sun dazzled through Tobias’s russet tail feathers, it was so picture perfect. And there, below our scubby little seagull feet, were the dolphins, chittering and splashing away.

<I’m really just fine keeping an eye out overhead,> Tobias said.

<Enough of that,> Rachel said. <Just go down and snag your morph already. You’ll LOVE being a dolphin, okay?>

<Wait, snag?> I asked, but perhaps a bit too late. Tobias had already gone into his dive.

See, we need all remember that morphing requires touch. As in Tobias needed to touch a dolphin. A red-tailed hawk grabbing a living torpedo.

In retrospect it’s hilarious.

I can only guess Tobias’s claw got stuck in the dolphin’s rubbery skin, because I’m very convinced that he would’ve let go. The dolphin seemed fine, even happy. Perhaps he thought it was a game, because he was making some killer laps.

<AUUUUUUGGGHH!!!!!!!!!!>

Now, the trainers, they looked like a bad case of the stooges. One guy was just chasing around the outside of the tank after the dolphin, like if he could catch up he could actually do something. One woman was just staring, slack-jawed. I saw someone in the corner with their phone out, and at least two people screaming into walkie talkies. It was chaos.

<AHHHHH!!!! He’s gonna drown me!!!!> We tried to be helpful, but the responses between the mad splashes of the dolphin rising in and out of the water didn’t make us feel appreciated.

<Hold your breath!>

<OH REALLY, DO YOU THINK?!>

<Let go!>

<What, OH RIGHT WHY DIDN’T I THINK TO LET GO! I’m **STUCK**!!!! >

<Start acquiring him! It’ll put him into a trance!>

<I’ve been acquiring him, GUESS WHAT? NOT IN A TRANCE!>

And then I had an idea. A crazy idea, to get us out of our first crazy idea.

<KAMIKAZE!> I yelled. I could see the dolphin pelting for one of those hanging hoops — one Tobias would never fit through with the dolphin — and took my best aim. I collided head on with the hawk’s body and lodged him free. We both flapped madly through the splashes of water as the dolphin sailed through the hoop, giggling its mad laugh. I’m sure we were the stars of social media that day.

<Ow…> Tobias said as we gained altitude.

<Ow yourself, I just saved your life,> I shot back, though not with any bite.

<Yeah, thanks. Just next time, let’s find a way that doesn’t involve breaking bones.>

<How have we survived this long…> I heard Tom mutter as we flapped our wings away from the Gardens.


	2. Royan Island

Since the first part of our mission went so swimmingly, we booked it post haste for the ocean. The beach is prime seagull territory, although we didn’t spend long over the delicious, trash covered paradise. And we were all in a good mood, excepting Tobias.

<The dolphin looked okay,> Cassie said. <Very superficial cuts. The vets will put some salve on him and give him a preventive antibiotic, I suppose, just to be careful.>

<Well, as long as the dolphin is okay,> Tobias said. <Because I really, really hope the dolphin is okay.>

<Are you going to be sarcastic the rest of the day?> I asked him.

<Yes. I am going to be sarcastic the rest of the day. I nearly drowned. Now I'm going to go become the thing that nearly drowned me. I will be sarcastic until further notice.> At the time, I was amused, frankly, put at ease by Tobias’s bad mood. It helped me not think too deeply about what we were planning to do. I’m very supportive of investigative missions, as I think information is our Achille’s heel, but they’re also very dangerous for the precise reason we have no idea what we’re going up against. Sure, the Yeerks don’t know we’re coming, but they kind of put themselves on general alert that we ‘Andalite bandits’ are going to show up _somewhere_. And this project was surely going to have some beefy security.

So I was taking a little pleasure in Tobias’s pain.

<You know, you could make a regular act of that,> I said as we turned our backs on the glorious beach and made our way over the water. The good thermals died out, but there were some winds to keep us from flapping too hard.

<Might I remind you,> Tobias said in an eerily calm voice, <that you are currently a pigeon with wings. I am a hawk.>

<Just saying,> I replied. <Dolphin rodeo. Great possibilities. Could be a vlog series.>

<Marco?> Rachel asked. <Shut up.>

It didn’t take long to spot Royan Island. There was a dark, lumpy silhouette on the horizon, and we had a trajectory. Another thirty minutes of hard flying brought us down onto the piddliest looking beach surrounded by gnarled pine trees. Tobias landed on a branch on the part of the island farthest from the mansion, and we landed among the tall grasses and wildflowers at its base. We demorphed while Tobias kept an eye out.

“Kind of a crummy island for a mansion that size,” I said.

“Says the boy who doesn’t own an island,” Rachel shot back. “Did you see that yacht?”

“Right, there’s a rich man, meaning we’ve got either a civilian or an enemy around our back,” Tom said. He’d started saying that at some point. Civilian. None of us had really corrected him yet: we’re all civilians. I mean, aren’t we?

<What are your orders, Prince Tom?> Ax asked. Tom gave huge sigh.

“I _suggest_ we get on with the water portion of this mission,” Tom continued. “It’s what we’re here for.”

“No smelling the daffodils?” I asked, plucking a few wildflowers.

“Do not hand those to me,” Tom said sternly. “No flowers.”

“A daisy chain to find our way home?”

“Water. Now.” Tom stomped his way down the muddy, grainy beach and into the water. I looked to Cassie, shrugged, and handed the flowers off to her.

“What can I say? When the man says ‘swim’.” We followed Tom into the water and, once out far enough, began our dolphin — or shark, in Ax’s case — morph.

Now, dolphins are pretty fun guys to be. But morphing them can be a bit disorienting. Especially when your limbs decide to suck up into your body first thing and leave you face first in the ocean.

“Oh gross,” I heard someone say through the warbles of the water. I was trying to hold my breath until the blowhole came in, and it was making me a bit dizzy. I turned and got a last gasp of air before my mouth elongated and there was little chance of that maneuver again. Finally — FINALLY — the blowhole opened in the back of my head and I could breathe freely. I was a dolphin in the ocean, aka an angel in heaven.

Except there was a shark and my dolphin brain took a flip over that news. I was 30 feet away and banking back for a tussle before I remembered it was Ax.

<Who’s so excited over there?> Rachel asked. Another dolphin came up to join me.

<Just nice to stretch the tail,> I responded smoothly. Ax moved towards us in shark morph. The dolphin did not like the shark. I did not like the shark. (We have bad history.) So it was with great effort that I looked for a distraction. A shadow came over the water.

<Tobias, are you still up there?>

<I just thought you needed cover,> Tobias replied lamely.

<Come on in, Tobias,> Rachel called up. <The water’s great!>

<Great my feathery…> I saw Tobias’s shadow pass by again.

<It’s really not bad at all, Tobias,> Cassie said. <It’s a very enjoyable morph.>

<Yes, and we’re losing time,> Tom said calmly. <So please, let’s get this over with.>

<Oh man,> Tobias said, then paused. <Okay… Okay!>

“TSERRR!”

I watched as the shadow grew bigger — a LOT bigger — and I realized Tobias was starting his morph before he hit the water. I dove down to avoid the splash but couldn’t avoid feeling the ripples as the quickly dolphin-sized mass hit the water going the speed of a red-tailed hawk. Tobias plummeted as he morphed.

<Turn back towards the surface!> Cassie cried out to him. I saw him turn from a distance, his tail only beginning to furl out. Then he was swimming, shooting back to the surface. He broke upwards and landed with another splash.

<Okay,> Tobias said, sounding out of breath. <Okay, this is not completely awful.>

<Glad we’re enjoying ourselves,> Tom said, sounding exasperated. <Now, if we could get back to our mission —>

<Should we choose to accept it,> I stated.

<—Let’s take a trip around the island and see what we see.>

<Feeling better about the water, Tobias?> Cassie asked.

<Yeah,> Tobias said thoughtfully. <I mean, it’s hard to be afraid of anything really right now. You said a swim around the island? Like a race?>

<WE SHOULD RACE,> Rachel said.

<No, we’re playing I-Spy,> Tom said. <Everyone try and spy out the Yeerk structure under the ocean here, alright? Ax, will you keep track of time?>

<Of course, Prince Tom.>

<Bet I spy the Yeerks before you do!> I cried, dashing ahead. The others were soon on my tail — even Tom, for all his attempts to be serious. We ZOOOOMed through the water, leaping and dashing our way through the dolphin’s natural Eden. We might talk of pastoral and idyllic scenery, but there is nothing to describe the way a dolphin feels about the ocean: its boundlessness, its enveloping embrace, its pure bliss. And behind five dolphins trailed a single shark, its cold exterior a constant reminder to my dolphin brain that there were dangers out there, too.

I fired off a series of echolocation clicks — something I’d been doing off and on out of dolphin habit — when something came back weird.

<Hey guys,> I said, suddenly feeling a bit of seriousness return. <Come check this out.>

<Is it fish?> Tobias asked. <Wait. Forget I asked that.>

<Forgotten,> Tom said. <What is it, Marco?>

<Shoot out some clicks, the way I’m pointing. The clicks are… weird.>

I heard bursts of echolocation from the others.

<Woah!>

<Have you found something?> Ax asked.

<It’s boxy,> Cassie said. <All hard and sharp edges.>

<Let’s check it out,> Tom said. <We need better than what clicks can give us. But no games now.>

No one objected. The dolphin brain was curious about the structure, a little weirded out. The structure we’d noticed was huge, and something that big should’ve been noticeable from our distance. Except there was nothing there; all I could see was the beautiful ocean scene. We got to a spot where the water was 200 feet deep and we should’ve been right there. Except all we saw was kelp and fish and rocks.

<Okay, so directly below us is apparently an invisible giant… building?> Rachel asked.

<A hologram,> Tom said. <Like Erek has.>

<Let’s hope not like Erek has,> I shot back. <If they have that a kind of tech we’re doomed.>

<It would take considerable energy to generate a hologram this size, but it is possible, even with Yeerk level technology.> This had to be some pretty ratty low band tech if Ax would admit Yeerks to have it.

<So what are we saying?> Cassie asked.

<It is likely just a projected image,> Ax explained. <We should be able to swim through it.>

<Should?> Tom asked.

<My apologies, Prince Tom, but my knowledge of visual signals technology is limited,> Ax said. I was trying to determine if he sounded snippy.

<Okay, then, nothing for it. Let’s check this thing out,> Tom said, and immediately pulled ahead of us swimming down. We swam for about fifty feet when everything changed. The seabed was gone. In its place was a pink-shaded structure built into the side of an underwater slope. There were three vast openings, each big enough to drive a dump truck through. Two were closed by steel doors. The third was open, revealing a dark tunnel. Between these openings were two circular portholes covered by convex glass or plastic. I could see clearly through those transparent blisters. Inside there were humans working at computer workstations. Like any office. Like The Office.

Except it was underwater.

Oh, and the Hork-Bajir.

Actually, they would make an interesting addition to the show.

The Hork-Bajir were not typing, which would be how I’d cast it, but they were standing at guard. I could see two of them through the first window. The second window was an empty room save a single desk. So. Bossman wasn’t at work, it would seem.

<Okay, this is the place,> Rachel said. <Now all we have to do is figure out what they’re doing here.>

<I need air,> I said quickly. I shot up to the surface to blow out and refill my lungs. The others followed suit, except Ax since his gills made surfacing pointless.

<So we found the Yeerk facility,> Tom said. <Unless we found a hitherto unknown natural Hork-Bajir natural habitat.>

<I wish I had my own eyes,> Tobias said. <I’d be able to read the computer monitors in there.>

<So what?,> I asked. <What do we do now?>

<Maybe we just swim around the place a few times,> Cassie suggested. <See if they do anything. Those three big openings are there for some reason.>

<Excuse me,> Ax said from below us.

<Yeah, Ax? What is it?> Tom asked.

<There are some fish that seem to be heading toward you.>

<Okay, well there are lots of fish in the ocean,> Tom replied. But I was suspicious.

<Large fish, Ax-man?>

<Yes. They are as large as my current morph and strange in shape.>

<Strange how?>

<Their heads. They have heads that are flat in the front but extend out on each side. They have eyes at the end of each side extension. Also, they have fins like mine.> It took a few seconds for me to process that word picture, but when I pieced it together my dolphin heart stopped beating.

<Hammerheads!> I yelled. <Hammerheads incoming!> We dove under and there they were, waiting for us.

<There must be ten of them!> Tobias said.

<Ten of them against five dolphins and a tiger shark,> Rachel said. <We’ve got this.> Rachel’s courage is something to behold, but let me tell you: I’ve been on the teeth end of a shark and nearly didn’t get to see this day right here, the day of me typing for your pleasure. We won that fight, but it was a close call. A VERY close call. The odds were worse now.

Needless to say I did not agree with Rachel.

<We do not ‘got this’,> Tom said. <Cassie, how likely are they to attack?>

<Well, they normally wouldn’t,> Cassie said. <Not unless they’re really hungry and outnumber the dolphins.>

<Newsflash: Marco can count,> I snapped. <They outnumber us.>

<Let’s hope they’re not hungry, then,> Tobias said. He sounded calm, but alert. <I haven’t done this before like you guys. Any tips for fighting sharks?>

<Yeah, don’t let them bite you,> I muttered.

And then the sharks shot straight for us. It was like being assaulted by a well-trained unit. I had a sudden, vivid flashback of searing pain when they’d bitten me almost in half once before. I’d been floating in the water, the lower third of me hanging by shreds of flesh and guts.

Look, I’m scared of sharks. I need a break.

  



	3. Freaky Sharks

I’m back to typing. Hour for me, no time for you. Isn’t writing magical? Okay. So we were attacked by a bunch of hammerheads. They came in like trained troops and I was ready to piss myself.

<We do not need this. Everyone, let’s get out of here,> Tom said.

<We run?!> Rachel asked, outraged.

<You’re welcome to stay, Rachel,> I said.

<No, we all retreat. NOW,> Tom said decisively. But I had already kicked my tail to spin around and see behind us.

<Oh my god,> Cassie said. She had done the same as me and come to the same conclusion: invoke higher powers. <There are more behind us!>

There were four coming at us from behind, making it fourteen sharks in all. And so I followed the retreat order like a quivering, cowering baby. I powered my tail at right angles to the two groups of sharks and made to make as much distance as possible. I became vaguely aware that the others were behind me but I honestly didn’t care at the time. I could’ve been heading the exact opposite way from them. I guess they all just followed my lead, though.

<Head for shore. They may not follow into shallow water,> Cassie said. But the two groups of sharks saw us trying to escape and changed course to cut us off. They were fast. It was a race, and I lost as two of the big hammerheads cut me off, one slightly above, the other below. I spun; we were truly surrounded.

<Sharks go for blood,> Tom said. <Right? Attack one and give them a new target.> But something was already off about these sharks. Tom aimed for one of the sharks, and we all hit it in quick succession. There was blood in the water, but the other sharks didn’t care.

<Okay, new plan,> Tom said. <We bunch up and punch our way through.> And we moved to the new plan; and the sharks moved to counter it.

<What is with these sharks?!> Tobias yelled. And while we were hurtling forward, pressed side by side with four other dolphins and a tiger shark, I had a brilliant flash of inspiration born out of pure terror.

<Surface!> I yelled. <Sharks don’t jump! Sharks do not jump!>

Inches from the rows of ripping teeth, we turned and headed up. I rocketed for the surface. We arced out of the water then back in — on the other side of the sharks. They turned to chase us, but we had gained several feet. We hauled.

<Can we outrun them?> Tobias asked.

<We’re about to find out,> I said. And then the weirdest thing of all happened: a siren.

Not the mythical ocean lady, but the ‘lunch is over, back to hell’ siren. It reverberated through the water, just loud enough for my dolphin hearing. I think I’d never have noticed it if I was a human. But at the sound of the siren, the sharks turned around and swam away.

<What the hell?> Rachel asked, stopping and spinning to watch the sharks leave. I wasn’t really ready to end our retreat.

<Why did they retreat?> Ax asked after catching up to the rest of us.

<Who cares why?> Cassie said, expressing my own personal feeling at that moment. I could’ve kissed her. <Let’s just get out of here before they change their minds again.>

<Amen.> Tobias said. But I was starting to realize I’d looked like a complete coward, so idiot me opens my mouth and says:

<We should go below and see what called them off.>

<I agree with Marco,> Rachel said, confirming to me that I was entirely wrong.

<Let’s calm down a bit,> Tom said. <We have to pass by that place to get back to land. We keep our eyes peeled — either for them to return, or for what called them off. Ax, they didn’t seem as interested in you. Mind taking the lead as we head down to the bottom?>

<I would be honored to lead the way, Prince Tom.>

We took a deep breath and began to dive, but almost immediately resurfaced with a cry. A submarine, shaped like a stingray with three engines in back, was hurtling through the water not twenty feet below our depth. And the real head spinner: the whole thing was clear, like glass. I could see directly through the floors of the sub, all three decks, and the crew consisted of every kind of Yeerk controller we’d seen so far, plus one creature we’d never seen before.

The bizarre creature had pebbly, yellowish skin that seemed slimy. It sat like a frog on big hind legs with webbed feet, but instead of a frog’s tiny front legs, this creature had four tentacles spaced evenly around its body. There was no neck, and the face curved outward, with a hugely wide mouth that seemed frozen in a sort of idiot grin. There were two eyes, both brilliant green and large. As it passed, I swear it shook and turned to gaze at us.

This was apparently to the displeasure of whoever was sitting in the chair. This creature — a Leeran, we later came to find out — was at the helm of the submarine, and by the looks of it speaking with the bossman. We saw the Leeran shrug.

<How many guesses that that’s Visser One coming home?> Rachel asked.

We didn’t take guesses. We watched as the submarine made its way down towards the sea floor until it disappeared behind the hologram, sharks trailing it the entire time. See, we’d already met Visser One once, albeit briefly. She’d made a stop at Earth before. Nearest I can figure from the encounter, she was there to check up on Visser Three. You know, standard progress report. But the vissers don’t like each other. They hate each other so much that Visser One helped us escape, just to make Visser Three look worse.

That’s politics for you.

But that wasn’t really the important part. What matters is we came face to face with the Visser. We looked her human host in the eye, an eye I very deeply recognized. Because Visser One’s host is my mom.

Okay, okay, I hear you shout ‘liar!’ I said in the beginning my mom hadn’t been taken by the Yeerks. Well, no, I said she never got infested like Jake did. Like I said, I lost my mom a long time ago, and I don’t even know how long. They gave me a sham funeral and carted my mom away, a slave in her own head. To a visser, no less.

Needless to say I was shocked when I first saw her. Sat down flat on my behind, with Tom snapping at me to get up. I’m pretty sure none of the others know. But I know. I know who she is. What I don’t know is when she was taken. How long was she bringing me up for bed, tucking me in, and all the while staring helpless from inside her own skull? Was she ever my mom? The Yeerks have been here long enough my real mother may be someone who never even interacted in my life.

I slept horribly after the first trip to Royan Island. I had nightmares of sharks and the horrors my mother must endure. I think I had homework, because I always have homework, but I’m not sure if I did it. If I did, I did it poorly. I know I thought about the things I always think about with my mom. I think about how there isn’t really a category for this. There’s no counselor who can help me deal with my mother having a Yeerk in her head. I certainly can’t talk to Jake, even though I probably wouldn’t even if I could. We just have never been like that. And then I think how Tom must feel, sitting across the dinner table every night, face to face with an imposter.

At least I only see my mother once in a blue moon.

And besides, I’m not that touchy-feely guy. I’m the funny man. I’m going to make a person laugh, no matter how dire things get, and I’m the one who backs up my own. So after wallowing in self-pity or whatever, the next day I texted Tom and suggested Applebee’s: our usual. We’d been dozens of times by then, so his terse reply in the affirmative with a time wasn’t a surprise.

“So weird sharks,” I opened, after we’d done the pleasantries. He checks up to see if I’m getting my homework done, we get one of those fried onion flower things, I shrug homework off as unimportant. And he acts all big brotherly — half disappointed but also half agreeing. I don’t have a brother, but I’ve seen how Tom and Jake act with each other. It’s weird to have it directed at me, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

“We can label it affirmatively weird,” Tom said carefully, eating a fried onion petal gingerly. I could tell be now a bit of what Tom was thinking, and then? Tom was at a loss. He didn’t know what to do, and he was waiting for me to have some brilliant insight.

“Cassie confirmed it was out of character, and then they were following the sub,” I continued. I tried to sound confident. “So, I’m guessing they’ve been tampered with.”

“But why mess with sharks?” Tom asked. “The Yeerks have been pretty clear they will raze all animals. Why work with sharks?”

“Because we’re dealing with Visser One, not Three,” I stated. I needed to stay calm; I couldn’t give away anything about my mom. “Maybe Visser Three is out to destroy all life, but Visser One sees potential. What better guards than sharks?”

Tom paused and gave me a long stare. It was a look filled with deep thought and consideration.

“I know she scares you,” Tom said. “From day one, something spooked you in her, but Marco, you have to remember. She’s a Yeerk. Just like all the others, she’s a slug who invades brains. Just like every human general was simply a man, went through all the same troubles we all do.”

“I’m not scared of her,” I said, but I must not have sounded convincing.

“It’s okay to be scared,” Tom said. “I know you still do what’s right, even scared. You do what’s needed.” And how different those two things are. I knew he really meant the second more than the first.

“I’m not scared of her,” I repeated. “I promise. But she’s not like every Yeerk. She’s clever, and dangerous.” Tom nodded.

“True,” he stated, peeling off another onion petal. “So what do we do?” I sighed heavily.

“We get inside. I’m not sure how, but we get inside. There has to be a way past the hammerheads, but it’ll involve stealth, I can tell you that.”

“Stealth, huh?” Tom asked. Our waitress arrived.

“You boys alright?” Tom agreed with a broad smile, but ordered an entree. I picked something that wasn’t seafood, knowing I still couldn’t stomach fish. I’d almost been fish food much too recently. Once the waitress left, Tom continued.

“You know, if you don’t have a stealth idea for me, the only answer is Cassie.”

“Oh, she’ll know something,” I said with confidence. “There’s one who thinks outside the box. And you heard her out there: she’s just as weirded out by those sharks. Maybe even more than we are. She’ll have an idea. I’ll hate it, but she’ll have an idea.”


	4. Infiltration

Cassie had an idea.

On cue, I did not like it.

The plan was quite simple — deceptively simple. Cassie believed that the sharks would not attack fellow hammerheads, recognizing them as their own. So we’d sneak in under the same guise. I did not like this idea — it involved acquiring a shark, which involved touching a shark while human, and they’d won up on me twice while a dolphin. But it was a plan and we’d gone forward on worse. So I tried not to act the total coward I was and went ahead with the plan to acquire the hammerhead.

I’ll make that short: snuck into aquarium (The Gardens doesn’t have a hammerhead), caught by (controller) guard, sliced open underwater tunnel exhibit to escape, bombarded by gushing water, chased by hammerhead, mad scrambled to acquire the beast and put it in a trance before I could become chow again for a shark, and brought the shark up for everyone else to acquire themselves. It made me look a lot braver since I never admitted to the others the mad scrambling bits. Then it was all just getting back to Royan Island.

We waited for the weekend, after the fiasco at the aquarium. We tripled our security, and by security I mean paranoia, on our trip to the island. We knew there were Yeerks there now, and we knew it was serious. Not that we hadn’t always known, but it’s different after you escape probable death the first time.

<Hey,> Tom said as we flew. <Crack a joke already.> I got the feeling he was talking to me and me alone, something we can do with thought speech.

<Is that an order, commander?> I asked. I had meant for that to sound like the joke, but it came out surlier than I had intended.

<Maybe,> Tom replied. <My troops are in need of some relaxation, and you, pint-size, are freaking them out.>

Pint-size. I remember he’d used to call Jake that. Maybe still did.

<Have I mentioned that this is insane, yet?> I asked the general group.

<No,> Rachel replied.

<Oh, must’ve all been in my head. Let me list off all the reasons I’ve found, so far, for this to be insane.>

I came up with approximately 23 reasons, in the short span of time it took for us to finish our flight, why that plan should have been considered even slightly insane. I mean, we had no reason to expect the hammerhead thing to work, right? Just because it did work didn’t make the plan any less crazy as we sat huddled on the piddly beach of Royan Island. We waded out into the cold water and began the morph — our first time as hammerheads. It came out about as I had suspected, but was still jarring. Just as soon as I kicked my tail into motion the shark brain grabbed a hold over mine.

No fear.

No anger.

Just move and eat.

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t hooked. In my defense, my brain was on overload from emotions. Too busy thinking about my mom, keeping the big secret. Too worn from doing the same math problems in different styles every day. Too stretched and drawn from the war. And so for a bit I sort of let go, even as I went turning and turning, looking for the source of drops of blood in the water.

<Oh! Guys! Stop looking, that’s my blood! That’s my blood in the water!>

The words were meaningless for a long time. Just chatter.

<I cut my foot when we walked out here; it’s my blood!>

It was Cassie. She kept calling us back by name, and something in the shark’s confusion — where was the prey? — let me take control again.

<Augh!> I yelled. I was disgusted with myself. I’d almost enjoyed that dead sensation inside. If I hadn’t been a shark, I’d’ve shuddered. The others were coming out of it one be one. Tobias took it the best, but he lives in an animal mind daily so maybe that’s not a surprise. Ax handled it well, too, but he did comment that it had been more than he’d expected after his previous shark morph.

Makes you wonder how he handled it the first time he went shark.

<Yikes,> Cassie said, laughing nervously. <Kind of single-minded, aren’t they?>

<No one else bleed,> Rachel said. <I’ll be hungry for hours.> This was in the days when we still got cocky about morphs. Wait, who am I kidding, we still are. We think, after being in the heads of all these animals, we can’t be thrown a new loop. Well, the shark threw us the oldest loop in ocean. At the most basic survival level, that tiny shark brain has something on our human ones.

But now we were in control. We swam back around the island and toward the concealed, underwater facility. We hoped to just pass right in, now that we were hammerheads like the super-shark others we had wrestled with before. And we did. Those guard sharks swam right past us and around us, paying us no mind. I swam right up to the portholes of the facility and stared in at the human-controllers typing at their computers.

<So…let’s do this?> Rachel asked.

<Do what?> Tobias asked. <We’re past the guard sharks.>

<We go inside,> Tom said. He sounded weary, but I was distracted. I was taking a third pass at that second porthole: the one that led into the private office. Finally, _she_ walked in.

Sharks can’t stay still. A still shark is a dead shark. So I’m guessing the shark saved me there, because I would’ve just stayed there watching my mom until someone had the sense to shake me out of it. Instead, I swam on past the window and she came out of view. I tried to catch up on the conversation.

<We’re going inside?> I asked.

<Way to pay attention, Marco,> Rachel said, snidely. <I already said we have a choice of open hatches. I vote left.>

<Why left?> Ax asked, curious.

<So we’ll stop squabbling,> Rachel replied.

<Calm down,> Tom said. <Nothing wrong with either way. Rachel wants the one on the left, fine. No arguments.> So we swam for the left opening, which was actually in the middle since the far left hatch was closed. The thing was huge — clearly big enough for a submarine to enter through. Up close, we could see lights inside. We swam around with the other hammerheads gathered around, and I rolled on my side to stick an eye up out of the water. There was a boat dock, but mostly it was a giant steel box. Whoop dee doo.

<We’re not going to see much more staying in shark morph,> Rachel said. <We need to get out and look around.>

<I’m open to suggestions,> Tom said.

<Flies!> Cassie said. <Everyone except Tobias has a fly morph.>

<Oh, great. I get left out again,> Tobias complained.

<I think they might notice a red-tailed hawk flying around in their underwater facility,> I said. <Although there are probably rats infesting this place, too, so the Controllers may appreciate your being here to eat their pests.>

At that moment, an alarm went off. It was a rising SCREE sound that put us all into triple speed. A wall of hammerheads came for us and…

…Swam on past. They swam for the far end of the dock. Now we could distinctly hear the sound of a mechanized door opening.

<We should follow them,> Rachel said.

<Are you kidding me?> I asked.

<We wanted something to investigate,> Tom said. <Let’s find out what the sharks are doing. It may lead us where we need to go.>

<Or they might lead us right into where they make the new Oscar Mayer Shark-meat Lunchables,> I said. I was back in my groove with the mission in full swing. <Hammerhead slices, American cheese, crackers, and a cookie.>

We followed the sharks to the far end of the dock where they lined up single file. The pathway would’ve been claustrophobic if sharks had fear.

<I’m starting to think Marco was right,> Tobias said. <This sure feels like some kind of shark slaughterhouse.>

<I don’t think so,> Cassie said. She was first, just ahead of me. <I’ll bet this is something more medical. Besides, we’d smell blood if the other sharks were getting hurt.>

<Unless they’re getting boiled alive,> I shot back. <Boiled and canned, all in one process. Then it’s Chicken of the Sea shark meat.>

Then I heard Cassie yell, and I didn’t feel like joking anymore. Before I could react, steel claws grabbed me just behind my hammerhead, and I was lifted out of the water. I saw a line of us, a conveyor belt of hammerhead sharks, all hanging vertically. There were human- and Hork-Bajir controllers manning equipment boards and looking totally uninterested. Then, in the next room, a robot arm with tools arced towards sharks in the line.One plunged right into the back of a shark’s head.

<We have GOT to get outta here!> I cried. And then the needle plunged into Cassie’s head.

<I’m okay,> Cassie gasped out. I would’ve sighed if my gills weren’t gasping. <I think it was just immunization, maybe.>

But then things got worse. The robot arm hesitated, pulled out another device, and scanned Cassie. Then came the drill.

<What was that?!> Cassie cried in alarm. I didn’t know what to say. The drill was huge, and I’d seen it plunge into Cassie, all the while I was hanging vertical, helpless behind her. After it drilled, the robot arm withdrew its tool and popped in a bright steel cylinder. Then it cauterized the wound with a green laser.

<Cassie, are you okay?> Tom asked. He sounded calm, which either meant he had no idea what was happening or he was freaking out.

<Yeah, I guess so,> Cassie said. I was next behind her, and there was pain, but sharks don’t care about pain. The thing really going through my head as I dropped back into the water was — what was in my head?!

<What was all that about?> Tobias asked.

<They injected something right into our brains,> Cassie said. <But… oh. Oh! Aaargh!>

It hit me a few seconds later, then right down the line of us. This was a maddening amount of pain. My brain was exploding. A tiny ferret was itching to claw its way out of me. The shark did not like this. I screamed at the incessant agony. And then, through the water, a sound reverberated. It was a gentle wooo wooo sound. And the pain went away. And there was pleasure.

<What is happening?> Ax demanded.

<I don’t know, but it’s kind of nice.> And then I noticed something funny about that shark brain. Before the world had either been prey or uninteresting. But now the shark eyes noticed patterns in the steel of the dock. It noticed scents of oil and seaweed that had nothing to do with killing.

<This sounds insane,> I said, <but I think this shark just got smarter.>

<Like the sharks that attacked us,> Rachel agreed.

<My shark brain just wondered,> Cassie said, sounding amazed. <It wondered whether there would be prey later. But sharks don’t even have a concept of future! This is completely impossible!>

<No, it’s completely insane,> I said. <Which, I might add, this entire mission has been.>

<So what does this mean?> Tobias asked. <Why make smart sharks?>

<There’s only one reason to alter the physiology of these brains,> Ax said calmly. <To make it possible for the Yeerks to enter them. The natural shark brain is too small, too simplistic for the Yeerks to control. They are mutating the sharks to make them capable of being made into controllers. They will need to add ear canals as well.>

<New Hork-Bajir, seafaring,> Tom said contemplatively. <They must need to fight in an ocean somewhere. After all, Earth isn’t Visser One’s project anymore, right? But if she’s assigned to some ocean planet… We haven’t even explored a fraction of our own ocean. Imagine trying to fight battles with a native aquatic race.>

<I’d want sharks on my side,> I said. <No question. These things are lethal.>

<We should get out of the water,> Tom said. <It won’t be pretty. We’ll have to stay underwater until we’re in the new morph. Let’s hope the flies will be able to dry off quick.>

This was a difficult maneuver. We had to return to human form, then morph again, all in the water, without being seen or drowning. It quickly became complicated for even more vicious reasons. At some point in the shrinking process I felt my head exploding. Literally. I screamed and stopped the morph. My eyes were more fly than human at the time, but I had experience making sense of the weird multi-tv wall of vision. I saw Rachel — blond hair sucking into her fly head — and I saw the _thing_ in her head.

<Stop morphing!> I cried.

<I am experiencing extreme displeasure,> Ax said.

<No duh, because those Yeerks left a piece of machinery inside of us. It’s bursting our fly bodies!> I cried.

<Demorph,> Tom stated. <Demorph _now_. Everyone! >

<What did it look like?> Tobias asked. I was already human so I had to surface to speak. I looked around. The dock was empty.

“I don’t know. Metal? I saw Rachel’s head being all twisted and bulging from trying to shrink with this thing inside it!”

“I should’ve realized,” Tom said. “We have to get them out.”

“Get them out and stomp every Yeerk in the facility,” Rachel shot back. We were all treading water now.

“Ooo, subtle,” I said.

“We need them out,” Tom said. He looked right at me. “The tools are here and we need them out. And there’s too many of them to just sneak in and get the controls.”

<Meaning what?> Tobias asked.

“Distraction,” Tom said. Rachel smiled.

“I like this plan,” she laughed.

“Let’s keep our heads,” Tom said. “Me, Rachel, and Cassie can cause the distraction. Marco, Ax, Tobias — find the controls. Make sure they can’t control us, and find a way to get these things out of our heads.” He ushered Rachel and Cassie closer to him so they could start their own plan.

“They’ll notice a pair of wolves around,” I said, grimly accepting the task ahead and turning to Ax. Tobias was already up in the rafters. “But birds are clearly safe to morph if Tobias is any indication. So… feathers?”

I went osprey, Ax went northern harrier. With a red-tailed hawk we made one hell of a disgruntled, wet team. We flapped laboriously up to the roof of the facility and landed on one of the many beams. From there we could see there were three identical docks, one with the transparent sub. Only a couple of Taxxons were on board doing maintenance. There were also two buildings separated by the center dock — the rooms we had peered into through the portholes. There were no windows on this side, but I knew the one on the right would be her office. Up here, calmly assessing the situation, her presence came back to me. She was here. Somewhere.

<Whatever is happening is happening inside those buildings,> Tobias said. <So which one do we go for? Left or right?>

<Right,> I said instantly.

<Why?>

<So we’ll stop squabbling,> I said, trying to borrow a little of Rachel’s bravado. Tobias made a derisive sound but didn’t argue.

<Fine. Next question: How do we get inside?>

<Timing,> I said, watching the door. A Taxxon came writhing and shimmying out; its sides scraped as it pushed through.

<Next Taxxon to come out, we go in,> I said.

<And if another Taxxon does not come out?> Ax wondered.

<Believe in human luck, Ax. Human luck.>

<Ah. Yes. The human superstition of luck.>

<Also, believe in tigers.> I could see Tom now standing at the other building. Then he opened his mouth and let out the loudest roar — it echoed throughout the docks. Maybe you think you’ve heard a tiger roar, because you were in a zoo. Those tigers are lazy. If you’d heard a real roar, you’d’ve pissed yourself and run crying.

The Taxxon in the doorway looked like he wanted to do much the same. He decided to back it on up.

<Now, now!> I said, releasing my talon grip and dive bombing for the door. I shot in over that controller’s head probably clocking fifty miles an hour, a northern harrier and red-tailed hawk milliseconds behind me. But we were going too fast down a long hallway.

<Turn!> Tobias yelled. I banked on his call and found myself through an open doorway. Walls! Walls! Walls! I flared to kill my speed but not enough.

<Left!> Tobias cried again, and I found myself through a second doorway into an almost totally dark room. I’d slowed a lot — probably clicked down to fifteen miles per hour — but it was still too fast.

<Tight circle!> Tobias said. <Fly tighter and tighter, spiral down, get ready to land!>

WHUMPF!

WHUMPF!

CRASH! Rattle… rattle…

The last was me, hitting a metal trash can and rolling around inside of it.

<Everyone okay?> I asked, stumbling out of the trash can.

<I have damaged my bird body,> Ax said calmly, <but I am alive.>

<I think I broke my tail….> I said, testing it gingerly.

<Good grief. This is the last time I ever fly through a building with you two amateurs,> Tobias said.

<Let’s demorph,> I said, if only to escape my embarrassment in front of the pro. <Me and Ax will need to remorph even if bird is the word.> Before I lost my osprey ears I heard the sounds offar-off chaos.

<What do you think Rachel morphed?> Tobias asked. <Elephant or bear?>

<She’d do them both at the same time if she could figure out how,> I muttered before I lost my thought speech. When I’d finished, I stood to see my companions: an Andalite and Tobias - human again and flicking his head at every noise.

“You know, sometimes there’s just a very fine line between us and the Three Stooges,” I said.

<What are stooges?> Ax asked.

“A stooge is a guy stupid enough to run around inside a Yeerk stronghold wearing bike shorts with Deer-man and Bird-boy. That’s a stooge.”

<Your definition sounds oddly specific. … I will google this later.>

I led the way out of the room, Ax next with tail ready, and Tobias awkwardly bringing up the rear. He still isn’t used to being human again. In the hall, I shushed Tobias’s grumblings over human eyes and locked sights on a gold symbol on the door ahead.

Bingo.

“Ax,” I whispered. “If anyone comes through any of those doors…” I trailed off. Ax flicked his tail. I felt pretty well backed here, even if numbers weren’t in our favor.

When I reached for the door handle, turned and began to enter, a voice called out:

“Come in.”

I froze. She could likely see the top of my head, but my friends were hidden.

“I said come in,” the sinister voice said. “Never make me give an order twice. You won’t live to hear me give it a third time.”

So I stepped through the doorway, closing it quickly behind me, blocking Ax and Tobias from view. I walked on the wobbliest of legs to the front of the desk and faced her.

My mother.


	5. Visser One

I stood there, face-to-face, with Visser One, and her host body, my mother.

She looked the same, but also different. It was in the way she sat — not relaxed, her hands flitted business like over the papers on her desk. And in the fitted, authoritative suit, something I couldn’t imagine my mother having picked out. And her eyes, which were as hard and ruthless as the hammerheads she was changing.

But she had the same movie-star hair. It floored me so I almost fell back on my rump again.

“I was expecting four new technicians. Where are the other three?” I stared, then shook myself mentally. This was Visser One. This was _Visser One_ , not my mother, and I was in a very, very dangerous position. I needed a lie and _fast_.

“The other three? Oh. Oh, they… uh, they had a problem. Visser Three.” I left it open. Visser Three is known for his methods, and I was hoping she’d think the worst of him and fill in the blanks better than I could.

I was also hoping she didn’t kill messengers like he did.

My mother’s eyebrow raised contemptuously. “If that clown Visser Three thinks he can damage me in the eyes of the Council of Thirteen by sabotaging this project, he’s a bigger fool than I thought.”

I gulped. From outside there came a huge roar and a beastly bellow. The distraction was ongoing, and I could only imagine how desperate their situation was.

“We’re having a bit of a problem with the Andalite bandits Visser Three has still failed to exterminate,” Visser One said calmly.

I nodded numbly.

“I see,” she said. She sat back and gave me a hard stare. “Obviously your host mind is giving you some trouble. I’m sure you are aware that your host body is the biological son of my own host body.” She showed no emotion, no guilt, all while knowing what agony my mother must be feeling at seeing me. I felt sick, but I nodded.

“Yes, Visser.”

“You must learn to control your host more completely. My own host is in here creating an awful racket,” she said, tapping her head. I wanted to reach out and break that hand, the _Visser’s_ hand, except it was my mom’s too. So I did nothing as she continued. “But I do not let her weeping and wailing disturb me.”

“Yes, Visser,” I whispered. “I will try harder to control my host.” I was surprised she couldn’t see my hate in the air at that moment. But then —

WHAM!

It was the sound of something large being slammed against the outside wall of the building. I pictured a Hork-Bajir thrown by a rampaging elephant. I snapped out of the moment. Visser One barely blinked.

“Well. I guess I’d better see to this little problem outside,” she said wearily. “I have to wrap up this shark project and have a thousand shark-controllers ready for use on Leeran within two months. I don’t need to be pestered by Visser Three’s leftover Andalite problems. That incompetent fool will be arriving soon. I only wish these tiresome Andalite bandits would remove _that_ particular annoyance from my life.” She stood. She straightened her hair just as my mom always did. I wish, in that moment, I could have communicated to my mom, told her I’m fighting for her, that I’m not a controller. That I’d save her. But I don’t do stupid emotional things, even if I sometimes wish I did.

“Get to the lab,” Visser One said. “Go to work.” She walked past me as if she’d forgotten I existed. I held my breath when she stepped out into the hallway, but Ax and Tobias were gone. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, through the massive round porthole, I saw something large and sinuous. Like a snake, but fifty feet long and thicker than a Taxxon. It was the yellow of poison, with a mouth that could swallow a small boat. It was headed this way and I had a feeling I knew this particular snake’s name.

I followed the visser into the hall — she swaggered, like a Yeerk visser would but never my mom — then I ducked into a side room. And then I decided to fall down flat on the ground. I say decided — I got thwacked in the head by an Andalite tail blade.

THWAPP!

“Hey, it’s me,” I said when the blade came to my throat. “Please don’t remove my head. I use it sometimes.”

<Marco!>

“We were trying to figure out whether we should try and rescue you or go join the fight outside,” Tobias said in his now unfamiliar human voice.

<We accessed the central computer for this facility. But before we could discover anything, you came in.> Ax led me to the glowing 3D computer display. The tiger roared again, but sounded frazzled. We didn’t have much time.

“We should help them,” Tobias said.

“No,” I snapped. “We have a job and we’re not done yet. And they can’t be helped by us rushing out there. Visser Three is coming. You can see him through the porthole.”

<We should warn Prince Tom,> Ax said. I nodded, and Ax relayed the information.

“He can’t have heard about our battle,” Tobias said.

“I think he happened to be on his way here,” I said. Visser One sounded like she had expected him.

“So our bad luck, huh?” Tobias replied.

“Maybe not,” I pointed out. “Visser One and Three are rivals. She let us escape once to mess with Visser Three. This might work for us. But first things first. Ax? Start questioning that computer.”

It was hard to believe how calmly I stood there while Tom, Rachel, and Cassie were probably fighting for their lives. But I guess I’d had a good look at the ruthlessness of the Yeerks. I’d seen it in Visser One’s cold eyes. And sometimes the only way to survive is to be as ruthless as the enemy. To destroy before you can be destroyed.

<As we guessed,> Ax said, staring with his main eyes at the computer readout. <The Yeerks are invading a water planet, Leeran. It is not going well. Most of the Leerans are resisting. They are psychic, so the Yeerks cannot deceive them. They have foregone stealth and are now invading by force.>

“The visser said she’s expected to have the hammerhead-controllers ready in two months,” I added. “Those are the troops they intend to use.”

“Great, now can we get out there and help Rachel and the others?” Tobias demanded. He was already demorphing.

“Ax, did you find a way to remove these things from our heads?” I asked. Which had been priority one.

<The liquidation program for the units is heavily encrypted. But the implants will liquify in the event that this facility is completely destroyed as well.>

“What?” Tobias asked. “You can’t eliminate these things without blowing up the whole place?”

<Yes,> Ax replied. <It’s so there would be no evidence left behind if something goes wrong. In any case, we don’t have a way to annihilate this facility.>

“Ax,” I asked. “How do they keep the water out of this place? How do they keep it from flooding? If it were just air pressure, our ears would be seriously imploding.”

<Force fields, I assume. Modulated to hold the water back while allowing animal life-forms to enter and leave.>

“Can you reach the controls?”

<Done.>

“Can you turn off the force fields? Without letting the Yeerks know?”

<I said I had completed that task,> Ax said. <I added in a delay, that we might relay the plan to Prince Tom and change to water-ready morphs. Was that not what you had been suggesting?>

“Was exactly the suggestion,” I said, laughing and morphing. I was going gorilla — we were heading into a fight, and gorillas are damn powerful beasts.

<How long do we have?> Tobias asked, anxious and back in bird form.

<Five minutes,> Ax replied.

<We’d better all have gills before then,> Tobias muttered.

We ran from the room and I ripped the door to the outside docks straight off its hinges — hard to control that gorilla strength. What I saw was a scene of destruction. There were injured Hork-Bajir lying crumpled around the facility. There was a reeking, squashed Taxxon being munched on ravenously by a fellow Taxxon. Rachel in grizzly morph, Tom in tiger morph, and Cassie as a wolf had done some serious damage. But now they were cornered, almost surrounded by wary but determined Hork-Bajir. Visser One was striding toward them, seemingly unconcerned. As she went, she was kicking the wounded Hork-Bajir, demanding they get up and fight. Half a dozen had already rallied to her.

<Five minutes,> I said tersely, including Tom and the others in my speech. <Less. Then, we have to be in the water.>

<With gills,> Tobias reminded us all.

<The devices?> Tom asked, but I had already broken into a loping run. Tobias flapped away. Ax ran at my side, tail at the ready.

<It’s being handled,> I replied vaguely. <Ax, Tobias, help them out. I’ve got the visser.> See, I was wary to let Ax’s tail near my mother. I don’t know what it’d do to me, to see her decapitated.

<Help is good,> Cassie said shakily. Ax split away from me and I hit the group of Hork-Bajir that was following my mother. They didn’t see me coming.

WHAM! I slammed a Hork-Bajir down to the concrete and he stayed down.

SWISH! A wrist blade turned towards me, but that particular Hork-Bajir was already wounded: he was slow. He missed.

I was slow. I did not miss. I drove my canned-ham-sized gorilla fist into the Hork-Bajir’s chest. The others stayed back.

“Kill it, you cowards!” my mother shrieked. “Kill it!”

One of the Hork-Bajir leapt at me, arms and legs all flashing with deadly blades. I tried to dodge, but gorillas are not exactly fast.

<Aaaahhh!> I was cut, deeply.

“That’s it!” Visser One crowed gleefully. The Hork-Bajir slashed again, cutting my muzzle. His buddies moved in, too. Big mistake. I grabbed the big Hork-Bajir by his long, snake neck. Then I just closed my fingers tight. He slashed at me again and again, but I held on. I grabbed another Hork-Bajir with my other arm and introduced the two of them. The hard way.

They decided that was enough. The ones that could left, and Visser One stood alone.

“So, Andalite,” she said calmly. “I see you are enjoying the use of all these wonderful Earth morphs. But you must know you cannot escape from this place. However, if you surrender peacefully, I can let you live.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. We worry that if we speak with them, they’ll figure out we’re humans, not Andalites. And she would know instantly. So I just stared at her. It felt an eternity, but it can’t have been long before I heard a rasping, rumbling, almost belching voice. It said,’Ha tu ma el ga su fa to’. Clearly an alien voice speaking an alien language. But I understood it, in my mind. Sort of like thought-speak, but deeper.

What it said was, _don’t be fooled, Visser One. This is no Andalite_.

I snapped out of my daze and spun around. There I saw that strange creature again, that neckless, tentacled, pebbly alien. A Leeran. A Leeran-controller, to be more specific. It was close enough for me to squash without even trying. But what it said had frozen me to my core.

_It is not Andalite_ , the Leeran repeated _. It is a human_.

“No, you idiot,” Visser One sneered. “It’s a gorilla. They are related to humans, but not human. This is an Andalite in morph.”

_Beg your pardon for disagreeing, Visser, but—_

I snapped out of my reverie and punched that Leeran right in its froggy mouth.

At the same time, a huge yellow serpent reared up from a nearby dock.

“Visser Three, I assume,” my mother said contemptuously.

<Well, I see you’ve made a mess of things, Visser One,> Visser Three replied. <Our old friends the Andalite bandits seem to be annihilating most of your troops.>

“I’d have more troops, but for your interference!” Visser One raged. “And if you weren’t incompetent and a traitor to the empire you’d have cleaned up the vermin before now!”

They raged at each other. It was bizarre. You have to understand that there was a huge, roaring battle going on between my friends and the Hork-Bajir. I was standing there, having just punched out a Leeran. But all these two vissers seemed to care about was trashing each other. At great length.

That was when the alarm went off. An automated voice bellowed from speakers in the rafters.

“Brr-REEET! Brr-REEET! Warning. Warning. Containment seals will shut down in two minutes. Extreme hazard. Countdown beginning. Countdown will be in intervals of ten seconds. Thank you and have a nice day!”

I don’t really know which stunned me more: the fact that there was an announcement heralding the fact that a billion gallons of water were going to come rushing in (I thought Ax had handled that?) or the fact that the computerized voice had wished us a nice day. I wanted to laugh.

“Containment failure in one minute and fifty seconds. Have a nice day!”

Visser Three laughed. <Water rushing in, and you’re stuck in that weak human body, Visser One. Is that my promotion I see coming?>

Visser One was red with rage, but she turned and ran toward the office building.

<Yes, you’d better hurry and turn off your computer!> Visser Three crowed. <If you are able! These Andalites are devils with computers, you know! Hah hah hah!>

_Turn off the computer._ I snapped to my senses and followed her.

“Containment failure in one minute and forty seconds. Have a nice day!”

The visser had gotten a good lead on me. By the time I ripped her door with the gold seal off its hinges she was already madly typing at the computer.

“You’ve been too simplistic this time, Andalite!” she cried. I moved to close the distance. She raised a dracon beam. I tucked and rolled.

A searing burn arced over my shoulder and down my back. Painful, but no permanent damage. I slammed into her desk with all my weight and sent the furniture — and computer — flying.

“Oooh!” The visser landed several feet away.

“Containment failure in one minute and ten seconds. Have a nice day!”

I walked around the desk and put a fist through the computer. I saw quick movement out of the corner of my eye; she was going for the dracon beam which had landed not far away. I lunged; we both grabbed it at the same time.

My grip is better. The barrel cinched in on itself.

And that was when the Visser struck at me with her fist. Literally, my mother’s fist struck my gorilla chest, like a gnat fighting back.

I grabbed her hand. Lightly.

“Just do it already, you Andalite excrement. Filthy, snob-nosed, sanctimonious blue buffoon.> The visser sneered up at me. I stared back. I knew I ought to kill her. This was Visser One, head of the food chain for the Yeerks.

“Containment failure in fifty seconds. Have a nice day!”

I shoved her away, and she flopped to the floor. She would live.

But she wouldn’t live for long. Time was ticking down and I needed gills. I looked up at the giant porthole of water that I would soon be enveloped in. And there I saw a giant yellow snake, peering back in at me.

<Marco!> I turned. Tom was calling me from out on the docks. <Where are you?!>

<On my way,> I said, rushing for the door. I spared a last glance to my mother before bursting onto the dock and diving into the water. There was no time to even check for safety. I just had to morph to human and shark.

Underwater.

Holding my breath.

I don’t think I’ve ever morphed faster in my life.

I swam my hammerhead body out of that place as the water was gushing in. I caught sight of the destruction with my right side eye.

With my left side eye I saw an invisible submarine escape the facility. I’d like to think, despite the war, that my mother got on it.

<Marco?> Tom’s voice called out.

<Marco, are you out here?> came Cassie’s voice.

<I’m here,> I responded. <I made it out.>

<That’s a relief,> Rachel said. <Otherwise there’d be no one to grate on my nerves on a mission. Did you get the visser?>

How to answer that.

<The computer was more important,> I said, just as this numb, tingly sensation went off in my head.

<What was that?!> Tom asked.

<The device,> Ax explained. <Now that the facility is destroyed, the devices have liquified, leaving no trace.>

<Is that safe?> Cassie asked.

<Look, they’re gone,> I said. <That’s what we wanted, right?>

<We also wanted Visser One’s head on a platter,> Rachel groused.

<Well, we had to pick,> I said. <Maybe she drowned. I don’t know. Can we just go home already? We came out of this with squat.>

<We stopped the creation of shark-controllers,> Ax said.

<That’s true,> Cassie said. <This will set them back on the Leeran world.>

<What if they just start over?> Tobias asked.

<Timeline,> I said. <She said she had two months to get the project finished. No way she can make that now. She’d have to answer on that front before anything can go forward.>

<It’s also not our war,> Tom said bluntly. <I’m happy to hurt the Yeerks on any front, but we have to prioritize our battles here. We have to focus on saving Earth, which involves not risking ourselves unnecessarily.>

No one had anything to say to that. We swam back to Royan Island among the exodus of hammerhead sharks. I was lost in my own head. I know I never saw her get on that sub, but I had seen her pulling herself up off the floor.

I don’t know if you can comprehend what I felt in that moment. I could never describe it enough for you to understand it from me alone. You’d have to have some sort of reference yourself. Maybe you’ve lost someone so dear to you in your life to get it, but from the moment I saw her again I was struck. It felt physical, like even though my body stood stock still, my being had flown back and slammed into the wall behind me. Like everything in me was gone and returned all at once.

I remember that night that Tom described in our first post. You don’t have to go read it, because if you’ve made it this far you know enough to know how we got here. Seeing Elfangor die, the Andalite who gave us the power to fight, that shocked me. I couldn’t comprehend what I saw, but I didn’t doubt it was real. I could never have made something like that up, and I remember the sickly sweet, harsh scent I realized later that night was burning flesh. No one makes up details like that.

But seeing my mom? That was a shock of elation.

I’ve thought up scenarios where I would see my mom again. Every time I bring home a decent grade, I wish I could see the light in her eyes at the pleasant surprise. When I come home far past curfew, I think of how angry she would be, the yelling that she’d do. I’ve envisioned so many ways that she would walk back into my life. I never thought of this one. And it’s awful, because she was a slave to a slug within her own head, but I couldn’t believe she was _alive_.

Because if she was alive, if she is alive, I can save her.


End file.
